Lawmakers pump money into home colleges

A study released today found the amount of federal grant money lawmakers steered to colleges in their home districts rose 60 percent this year.

Critics say the figure shows politicians are more concerned about pet projects than education.

Congress approved $1.7 billion  the largest amount ever  for special projects ranging from renovating laboratories to historical research, according to an analysis by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The amount last year was just more than $1 billion.

Critics in the academic community say the directed grants, called earmarks, can be wasteful because lawmakers are interested primarily in their own states and cannot properly evaluate a project's worthiness.

They advocate allowing schools to compete for the funding through peer review instead.